A Little Lesson in Comma Usage

Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by mercy, Jan 7, 2008.

  1. snuffyb

    snuffyb New Member

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    punctuation

    Hi all, I am a truck driver and not always at home to res pone to many of the postings. But I would like to thank all who have responded. Though I initially took the criticism hard, I would like to say at 47 and having not done well in english class 30+ years ago, this is a new adventure so please keep this in mind.
    Additionally, how about some attention to the content. I do understand they go together, but I must learn to crawl before I walk.:)
     
  2. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    no one i know or have heard of use the full spelling of those common latin abbreviations... if they did, 'id est' would still need a comma after it, since it means 'that is' and in english, that expression does take a comma, the same as 'however' and other similar qualifying terms...
     
  3. Torpeh

    Torpeh New Member

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    I disagree. The sentence to which you referred, 'The boy ran down the street and stopped at the door', is a compound sentence, as it has two independent (main) clauses: 'The boy ran down the street' and 'stopped at the door'. In the second, it may look as though there is no subject, but the subject is implied: there is still a subject, but it's just unwritten, so therefore it is a clause in its own right, meaning that the placement of a comma before 'and' is up to the author's preference. 'The Elements of Style', by Strunk and White, stresses this point.
     
  4. leopharry

    leopharry New Member

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    I like this thread. =]
    I've always been one to overuse commas and semi-colons; I really can't help it (see? Haha. =P).
    Though I've always had trouble figuring out for myself if I placed the comma correctly.

    Thank you!!
     

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